剑桥雅思真题15阅读解析：Silbo Gomero

剑桥雅思真题15阅读解析：Silbo Gomero

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Silbo Gomero 一 the whistle 'language' of the Canary Islands

La Gomera is one of the Canary Islands situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa. This small volcanic island is mountainous, with steep rocky slopes and deep, wooded ravines, rising to 1,487 metres at its highest peak. It is also home to the best known of the world's whistle 'languages', a means of transmitting information over long distances which is perfectly adapted to the extreme terrain of the island.

This 'language', known as 'Silbo' or 'Silbo Gomero' - from the Spanish word for 'whistle'- is now shedding light on the language-processing abilities of the human brain, according to scientists. Researchers say that Silbo activates parts of the brain normally associated with spoken language, suggesting that the brain is remarkably flexible in its ability to interpret sounds as language.

'Science has developed the idea of brain areas that are dedicated to language, and we are starting to understand the scope of signals that can be recognised as language,' says David Corina, co-author of a recent study and associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Silbo is a substitute for Spanish, with individual words recoded into whistles which have high- and low-frequency tones. A whistler - or silbador - puts a finger in his or her mouth to increase the whistle's pitch, while the other hand can be cupped to adjust the direction of the sound. 'There is much more ambiguity in the whistled signal than in the spoken signal/ explains lead researcher Manuel Carreiras, psychology professor at the University of La Laguna on the Canary island of Tenerife. Because whistled 'words' can be hard to distinguish, silbadores rely on repetition, as well as awareness of context, to make themselves understood.

The silbadores of Gomera are traditionally shepherds and other isolated mountain folk, and their novel means of staying in touch allows them to communicate over distances of up to 10 kilometres. Carreiras explains that silbadores are able to pass a surprising amount of information via their whistles. 4In daily life they use whistles to communicate short commands, but any Spanish sentence could be whistled.5 Silbo has proved particularly useful when fires have occurred on the island and rapid communication across large areas has been vital.

The study team used neuroimaging equipment to contrast the brain activity of silbadores while listening to whistled and spoken Spanish. Results showed the left temporal lobe of the brain, which is usually associated with spoken language, was engaged during the processing of Silbo. The researchers found that other key regions in the brain's frontal lobe also responded to the whistles, including those activated in response to sign language among deaf people. When the experiments were repeated with non-whistlers, however, activation was observed in all areas of the brain.

'Our results provide more evidence about the flexibility of human capacity for language in a variety of forms' Corina says. 'These data suggest that left-hemisphere language regions are uniquely adapted for communicative purposes, independent of the modality of signal. The non- Silbo speakers were not recognising Silbo as a language. They had nothing to grab onto, so multiple areas of their brains were activated?

Carreiras says the origins of Silbo Gomero remain obscure, but that indigenous Canary Islanders, who were of North African origin, already had a whistled language when Spain conquered the volcanic islands in the 15th century. Whistled languages survive today in Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Vietnam, Guyana, China, Nepal, Senegal, and a few mountainous pockets in southern Europe. There are thought to be as many as 70 whistled languages still in use, though only 12 have been described and studied scientifically. This form of communication is an adaptation found among cultures where people are often isolated from each other, according to Julien Meyer, a researcher at the Institute of Human Sciences in Lyon, France. 'They are mostly used in mountains or dense forests, ' he says. 'Whistled languages are quite clearly defined and represent an original adaptation of the spoken language for the needs of isolated human groups?

But with modern communication technology now widely available, researchers say whistled languages like Silbo are threatened with extinction. With dwindling numbers of Gomera islanders still fluent in the language, Canaries' authorities are taking steps to try to ensure its survival. Since 1999, Silbo Gomero has been taught in all of the island's elementary schools. In addition, locals are seeking assistance from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). {The local authorities are trying to get an award from the organisation to declare [Silbo Gomero] as something that should be preserved for humanity,' Carreiras adds.

Questions 14-19

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

9 La Gomera is the most mountainous of all the Canary Islands.

10 Silbo is only appropriate for short and simple messages.

11 In the brain-activity study, silbadores and non-whistlers produced different results.

12 The Spanish introduced Silbo to the islands in the 15th century.

13 There is precise data available regarding all of the whistle languages in existence today.

14 The children of Gomera now learn Silbo.

Questions 20-26

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 20-26 on your answer sheet.

答案解析

Question 14

答案：NOT GIVEN

关键词：La Gomera, Canary Islands

解题思路：文中第一句提到La Gomera是Canary Islands中的一座。第二句提到这个小火山岛是多山的。但是并不能据此判断这里是山最多的地方，属于典型的证据不充分型论断。

Question 15

答案：FALSE

关键词：short and simple messages

解题思路：不建议用Silbo作定位词，因为该词在全文出现很多次。本题可以用short and simple messages定位。考点是绝对化词汇only。文中对应句说：Carreiras解释说，哨语者能够通过他们的口哨声传递数量惊人的信息。在日常生活中，他们用口哨声来传达简短的命令，但任何西班牙语句子都可以用口哨声来传达。说明Silbo并不是只适合短的、简单的信息。

Question 16

答案：TRUE

关键词：brain-activity, non-whistlers

解题思路：通过brain-activity定位到第六段第一句话，但是后面一直在讲哨语者的情况，直到最后一句出现了非哨语者。通过however的逻辑关系基本可以判断出关于非哨语者和哨语者的研究结果是不一样的。

Question 17

答案：FALSE

关键词：Spanish, 15th century

解题思路：原文对应句中提到：CaiTeiras说，Silbo Gomero的起源至今仍不清楚，但加那利群岛的北非裔土着居民，在15世纪西班牙征服这些火山岛时，就已经掌握了一门口哨语言。题目与原文明显矛盾。

Question 18

答案：FALSE

关键词：precise data, whistle languages

解题思路：本题主要的判断点就在于all，是否所有口哨语言都有精确数据。文中对应句说：据认为，目前仍在使用的口哨语言多达70种，但只有12种被科学地描述和研究过。因此可以看出不是所有口哨语言都有精确资料。

Question 19

答案：TRUE

关键词：children

解题思路：本题难点在于题目中的children在文中是用elementary schools来体现的。文中对应句说，自1999年以来，岛上所有的小学都开设了Silbo Gomero这门外语课。

Question 20

答案：words

关键词：high- and low- frequency

解题思路：文中对应句说：Silbo是西班牙语的替代品，每个单词都被重新编码成带有高低频音调的口哨声。

Question 21

答案：finger

关键词：pitch

解题思路：文中对应句的前半部分出现pitch，本句提到把手指放进嘴里去增加音高，说明是用手指控制音高。

Question 22

答案：direction

关键词：cupped hand

解题思路：文中对应句的后半部分说手可以弯成杯状，来调节声音的方向。原文中的adjust对应题目中的change。

Question 23

答案：commands

关键词：everyday use

解题思路：文中的daily life对应题目中的everyday，communicate对应 transmission，short对应brief。

Question 24

答案：fires

关键词：relay information quickly

解题思路：原文中的rapid communication对应题目中的relay information quickly，体现了传递信息。

Question 25

答案：technology

关键词：threat

解题思路：文中对应句说：随着现代通信技术的广泛应用，口哨语言面临消亡的威胁。

Question 26

答案：award

关键词：UNESCO

解题思路：原文对应句中的trying to get对应题目中的hoping to receive。

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